Getting Preclinical Honors

[C5toC9]

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How do people consistently get honors in preclinical classes? I am wondering if anyone has specific tips or strategies.

I have worked harder and harder since the start of MS1, revamped my study strategies, and my grades have improved from just passing to nearly honoring. However, I am still not at the level of getting honors. At my school, honors are cutoff-based and not curved or based on a certain % of the class honoring.

Two things that have worked for me are using review books and doing more practice questions. But I find I am hitting a plateau and still need something to push me to honors range. I really want to master the material, but sometimes, I feel the preclinical material has so many mundane non-Step1-relevant details. Any ideas?

 

[njbmd]

Different things work for different people. I never touched a review book or spent time on questions. I made my own questions and put my full concentration on learning the course material thoroughly.My school had everything in our syllabi and summaries which meant that I didn't have to organize materials except for my learning style. My advice would be to keep experimenting and something will work.

I also didn't waste time concentrating on a particular grade but on completing my mastery of each block of material at a time. Turns out that the high grades followed through mastery. Anything that took time away from my course materials was a waste of time for me.

Again, my system worked for me and my school. You have to find what works best for you and keep experimenting until you get where you want to be. There is no magical answer that works for everyone.

 

[da8s0859q]

Different things work for different people. ... I also didn't waste time concentrating on a particular grade but on completing my mastery of each block of material at a time. Turns out that the high grades followed through mastery.

This. OP, I'm an M2 come next year like you, but I can say that my grades went up substantially when I stopped freaking out about having to read some book or another, or having to do sample questions, or whatever else, and just honestly made myself sit down and get competent with the material as best I could, by whatever means I felt I needed (which basically amounted to repeatedly reviewing lecture notes and using First Aid in tandem for some of it). Understand as much as you can, connect new information to things you already know as much as you can, and resort to rote memorization only when absolutely needed. This is one of the few study-related things that has been true in college AND med school.

My last exam scores weren't stellar (as in ~98th percentile), but they were pretty good, and I did quite well on my block final a week or two ago. My numbers on the first few rounds of exams in med school were just passable.

I've got classmates who flash card everything to death and end up with great scores, but for me, I'd rather punch myself in the balls. It's just a matter of, well, what njbmd said -- if what you're doing now works well and you're comfortable with it, then stick with it, but don't be afraid to try a little bit of something else to push yourself over the hump. Or maybe you just need a few more hours in front of your notes to honor.

It also might just be a matter of material. Part of why I've been doing much better is related to how my school does things; I'd much rather have organ systems instead of a bunch of gross and biochemistry thrown at me.

 

[C5toC9]

Thanks for the advice. I am trying to change things up, but I don't know what else I should try. I use the lecture notes, review books, and practice questions wherever I go. Maybe I just need to be more efficient?

 

[drizzt3117]

Thanks for the advice. I am trying to change things up, but I don't know what else I should try. I use the lecture notes, review books, and practice questions wherever I go. Maybe I just need to be more efficient?

Honestly if you understand the material and can explain everything that's in the notes conceptually, then you should be good to go for honors. The key is just reading things over and over until you really know it.

 

[foofish]

Thanks for the advice. I am trying to change things up, but I don't know what else I should try. I use the lecture notes, review books, and practice questions wherever I go. Maybe I just need to be more efficient?

So, everyone has a different style and different reasons for not doing as well as they hoped. But to add some things to think about: I tutor preclinical students, and from my experience there are two common mistakes people make that seem to block them in med school.

The first thing is, have you changed your studying style dramatically from undergrad? There's a real temptation in M1 to suddenly adopt new strategies because, oh my god, med school is so hard and different and whatever and THIS person studies this way and THAT person studies that way and their approaches must be superior to mine. Or whatever. The result is you're getting slammed with a ton of material and trying out a new strategy to boot, and that often spells disaster. You're clearly smart enough to get into medical school, what study habits served you well in undergrad? For the MCAT? Yes, sometimes people DO need to change their style for med school, but don't abandon the approaches that worked for you in the past...just tweak the ones that no longer are working.

Second, many med students (especially preclinical) get very wrapped up in memorizing facts and names and diseases and whatever...and thus loose sight of the broader picture. The result is that at the end of the day you know most of, for instance, the little details about each kind of anemia but missed the point about how to approach diagnosing an anemic patient, AKA applying those seemingly disparate details into a unified clinical approach. Why are these details important? How do you apply them? What do they tell you and not tell you? How does the pathophys of a disease inform you about the treatment or vise versa? Etc. As you study, ask yourself why these details are important and don't lose sight of the clinical context...it will not only help you out now, but it will help you for third year and for Step 1, which will test your knowledge of the nitty gritty via a question expecting you to first be able to apply appropriate context.

 

[runx]

Thanks for the advice. I am trying to change things up, but I don't know what else I should try. I use the lecture notes, review books, and practice questions wherever I go. Maybe I just need to be more efficient?

Not claiming this to be the most efficient approach, but consistently worked for me...

Every day:
1) download powerpoints for that days lectures (sometimes review beforehand)
2) download the class captures when they come out
3) 1+2. type everything lecturer says into respective powerpoint comment box (this should take a long time if done thoroughly)

Study these slides (with everything that was said about them now in the comment box) like its your job. I'd keep a schedule of the list of lectures with me at the beginning of each block to help me keep track of where i was on reviewing the slides. I'd just go down the list, and repeat when I got to the end. Reinforce these slides with repetition until they are the basis of your knowledge for the subject. Try to get as much in your head each time you go through them, but also know when to move on with the knowledge that you will go over the slide again before the test.

My mindset was to master the lectures, rather than master the subject (eg learn from multiple sources). This kept me from deviating and studying multiple sources for one exam. The only books I used for M2 were question/case books, all geared at reinforcing my study of the lectures. (Robbins review of path book, case studies for micro).

 

[ent ent]

i'll be starting med school in the fall, so i'm wondering if medical schools allow you to see your past exams? it seems like it would be really helpful to see where you are going wrong, like a specific type of question, and then focus on improving your ability to answer that type of question? i'm just adding this because i haven't seen it mentioned.

 

[silverhorse84]

i'll be starting med school in the fall, so i'm wondering if medical schools allow you to see your past exams? it seems like it would be really helpful to see where you are going wrong, like a specific type of question, and then focus on improving your ability to answer that type of question? i'm just adding this because i haven't seen it mentioned.

It depends on the school, and even more so on the professor. We had some professors who gave us all the past exams they could, and some who wouldn't allow it at all.

 

[MsKrispyKreme]

i'll be starting med school in the fall, so i'm wondering if medical schools allow you to see your past exams? it seems like it would be really helpful to see where you are going wrong, like a specific type of question, and then focus on improving your ability to answer that type of question? i'm just adding this because i haven't seen it mentioned.

It's school-dependent. Mine doesn't.

 

[C5toC9]

There are 2 different types:

1) Past exams - these are exams from previous years. I had it in some classes, other classes I didn't. Depends on the professors.

2) Reviewing your tests/exams - This is allowing you to look at the test/exam you just took so you know what you got wrong and can improve for the next test/exam. I had this for every class.

 

[theVster]

This depends a lot on your school and the different classes offered... some are very lecture based, some are very textbook based etc.

I only honored one preclinical class so far (MS1) but I have all of MS2 ahead... what worked for me then was keeping up to date with the material and reviewing it over and over and over after making notes. Practice questions only helped AFTER I did all of that.